Ridley's swollen grey-brown eyes came into focus as they locked with Horatio's dark blue irises. She sat up suddenly with a violent shriek. "You have to get him!" she gasped as blood spattered out of her mouth. "Dark brown hair," she half-shouted out, wincing as each word caused her chest to pang in agony, "dyed...was golden brown...his eyes..." She shuddered as her eyes lost focus and sweat soaked her body. "Horrid...blue-violet..."

The nurse tried to force her back down on the gurney they wheeled her on but she jerked free. "Please," she choked out frantically as she looked to the redhead, "he'll go free...you need to find him...I did what I could...I did..."

Horatio nodded as he took a step towards her. "I know you did and we will get him," he promised.

"Now, my DNA is in his car and on him...I bit him...he hurt...it hurts...six feet...New York accent...I know it..." She shuddered suddenly as a bloody vomit erupted from her and poured down her chest.

"She's lost too much blood!" a doctor snapped as he tried to urge her back down. "We need to operate!"

"No!" Ridley snapped angrily. "The evidence! While it's there, God while it's there or it's for nothing. Warehouse, there was a warehouse, so cold, used mannequins...deep boot...heavy engine..." She shook her head in confusion and tried to lift her chained hands. In the ambulance they had given up trying to remove the chains on her hands and feet, they were too tight and needed cut off. "I clawed him," she said victoriously, "I got skin under my...nails..." She looked at her bloody finger stubs in horror and a scream escaped her before she fell back in a fit.

"She's going into shock!"

"We're losing her!"

Speed and Horatio followed as far as they were allowed before Ridley was rushed from their sight, shaking violently and foaming at her mouth. Speed shook his head in wordless disbelief and raked both hands through his dark, dirty hair. "What the fuck do we do now?" he demanded furiously as he looked to his superior.

For once Horatio didn't have the right answer. It had been clear Ridley was trying to convey that what evidence there was, was still fresh and that the killer would have evidence on him but as time continued on the evidence would grow weaker and lesser, he would change, he would wash, and he would move. "We have a job to do," the redhead murmured wearily.

"We can't leave her," Speed said stubbornly, "not for one second." Truthfully though he didn't think he could stay, what good could he do her? He didn't even have a gun, though his had done her little use in the end.

Horatio knew he couldn't either, he had failed her once but if he stayed was he failing her again or was he failing her if he left? He pictured the fourteen-year-old Riddle, the tortured teenager who hadn't gotten her hero cop in the end, the cop who hadn't just rescued Felicity Chase but had escorted her to the hospital and stayed with her there making sure she was safe.

"I'll call Calleigh," Horatio decided, "give her an update and a description of our killer, he can't be far, not yet, Ridley is alive, realistically he only buried her under hour ago and then..." He sighed heavily, the pleading in her eyes had been clear. "Then I have to go, one of us needs to be out there chasing the evidence, her evidence, she did everything she could to leave some, we can't let her down."

Speed swallowed hard and nodded silently.

"I'll have some other cops come by for extra support," Horatio offered, "and I will be back as soon as I can."

"What..." Speed paused for a moment, reluctant to voice his dark thoughts. "What if she dies in there?"

"Then you at least will be here."

"Right, because that's what she would want," he answered bitingly, "the guy who gave her a useless gun to protect herself with."

Horatio gave his co-worker a stern look. "Speed I don't pretend to understand or approve of your relationship with Ridley but one mistake doesn't erase all the good of it, if she's going to go tonight just make sure she doesn't die alone, I think we both know how she feels about being alone." He turned away from the dark haired man, tugged out his phone and started dialling Calleigh.

Dawn, it was cold, damp and grey when it came, ironically more like a New York morning than a Miami one. Calleigh wondered sardonically if it was in honour of their wounded New Yorker as she hastened up to the hospital.

The blonde was exhausted and it was telling on her wan face as she entered through the automatic doors. Her Glock drew a few quizzical and nervous looks but the flash of her silver badge soon abated them. She had stopped only because Horatio had ordered her and Eric to take a break and let some of the others continue the work. He knew they would burn themselves out otherwise and had permitted them to go back on the case in three hours. Calleigh had argued that he hadn't slept either but he had ignored her comments and was continuing on his crusade through the city. A description of their killer had been passed around the entire police force of the city and people were beginning to look at all the security footage near the graveyard, Eric had spent three hours pouring over it in fact.

It was Eric who had urged Calleigh to visit Ridley. The blonde had broken down in tears when Horatio had called and described Ridley's injuries, he had told them about Ridley's efforts to secure some evidence and suggested in his usual calm, professional manner that a rape kit be used. The blonde had called her superior callous, heartless even, and demanded to know the point of it when the doctors would ruin most of the evidence anyway but Horatio had answered serenely that Ridley had sacrificed a lot and for her own peace of mind they needed to be seen making all the effort they could to gather DNA and evidence. He had intended for one of the trained cops to do it but Calleigh had snapped heatedly that no more strangers were going near the woman and that if it had to be done she would do it.

Now here she was, unsure if she was visiting as a friend or a colleague or worse, just a cop on the scene. She recalled Eric embracing her close, rubbing her back gently and assuring her that Ridley would be alright and that she was doing the right thing. She remembered how warm he had felt and how good he had smelled and how with one brief, comforting gesture he had broken her resolve. Calleigh had cried harder and demanded angrily if she could just be Ridley's friend and not a cop but Eric had insisted by being the cop on the job Calleigh was being her friend and that it was better Calleigh than a stranger poking and probing at the poor woman.

She followed Horatio's directions up to the fourth floor to the intensive care unit where a helpful nurse directed her on to the wards and through to a secluded room guarded by two cops who waved her on when she flashed her badge and gave her name. Inside the modest room an ashen faced Speedle greeted her, a gun brought from the headquarters by the cops clutched tightly in his right hand.

"Calleigh," he greeted numbly before he placed the gun back on the table.

The blonde's blue eyes went wide and filled with fresh tears as she took in Ridley's beaten form. She was hooked up to several machines, there was a clear mask over her face helping her breathe, a drip of blood and one of morphine, bandages over her feet and hands and stitches at her face and what was visible of her chest.

"How is she still alive?" the Southerner choked out as she set her silver case down on a plastic, blue chair. She knew it would be bad, Horatio had warned it, and yet she didn't think she had been prepared for this. The woman's face was a mixture of violent colours from bruising and bleeding and it only made Calleigh fear what was unseen.

Speed shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted darkly, "she wasn't for a while, they had to bring her back three times. They thought her heart was going to give out," he spoke in a matter-of-fact tone like she was just another case, "but it didn't. I don't know that it's better she kept going."

"How can you say that?" Calleigh hissed in horror as she flickered her blue gaze up to him, glad of a chance to tear her gaze away from Ridley.

Speed gestured to a thin, brown file on the wooden cabinet beside Ridley's bed. "Her report from the doctors so far, Horatio wants us to know every detail, in case it helps," he murmured dryly, "it's a graphic read. You know, we've seen a lot but all this damage to one person, it's bad."

"One person?" Calleigh echoed heatedly. "Ridley, Speed, this is Ridley."

"I know that!" he snapped dismissively. "He raped her so hard he broke her pelvis Calleigh, he tore off her nails one by one and flayed her skin, and all that before he buried her alive to suffocate or bleed to death, and you don't want to know where the sick fuck put that calling card of his. This guy had no intentions of her living. And the thing is, she had a gun and she was a good shot and one shot is all it would have taken."

"Well Speedle you should have cleaned your goddamn gun!" Calleigh snapped viciously. "But you didn't! Is that what you want to hear? That maybe if you'd cleaned it she would be okay? Well that's true! But maybe he just would have found another way then and frankly we all let her go out the door," she finished a little more softly, "and you're the only one who tried to give her protection. I never even thought to offer her a gun even though I knew hers was gone."

Speed stood up and turned towards Ridley before looking away suddenly. Calleigh watched in shock as he reached up a hand and rubbed at the corners of his eyes briskly before turning to her with a grim expression. "I need the toilet," he grumbled, "can you watch her?"

"Of course, I've something to do anyway," she admitted awkwardly as she glanced at her case out of the corner of her eye.

Speed's brown gaze turned suspicious as he followed her gaze. "What?"

"It's...it's a rape kit," Calleigh confessed.

Speed's expression darkened and he pushed his hands out in a firm gesture. "No, no fucking way."

"Speed, Ridley wanted us to gather all the evidence we could."

"You can't do that," he wrinkled his brow slightly in disgust and shook his head, "shit, did you not hear me? Her pelvis is shattered, you...you put one of those things up there and...no, look you're not doing it."

"Speed I don't want to either okay, it's not exactly my area of expertise but it's protocol and you know it and it's what she would want. I'll be quick and gentle, I promise, it's just getting a swab."

"What she would want? Seriously?" He sighed angrily before turning back to the broken woman.

"She won't even know," Calleigh said quietly.

"Or she'll wake up screaming," he grumbled. "Alright fine, do what you have to but while I'm here."

"Speed-" the blonde made to protest.

He folded his arms and gave her a stern look then. "Calleigh I might be dying for a piss but I'm not going and letting you do that. If she wakes up terrified and screaming I'm going to be here."

The blonde nodded. "Okay, look, go to the toilet, I'll wait."

"You'd better," he muttered before heading to the door.

Calleigh took a seat beside Ridley and looked at her friend with a deep pity. Her eyes filled with surprise when she saw the edges of a dark red shirt poking up from beneath her blanket and knew who it belonged to. "Gosh he really does care about you," she mused.

Twenty minutes trickled by before Speed returned, grim faced and clutching something in his right hand. Calleigh stared at the item curiously before her expression became baffled as she realised it was a stuffed toy, presumably purchased from the gift shop.

"I have to go," he said coolly as he looked at the blonde, his gaze tinged with rage.

"What? What happened to being here if she wakes up terrified and screaming?" she retorted sharply as she stood up from her seat.

"Horatio's got a trail," he admitted bluntly, "and he needs help, I have to go. Besides, you're the best shooter there is, if she's in your hands she's safe."

"Speed she's safe with you," Calleigh retorted gently.

"Not safe enough," he argued as he stepped up to her bed. He looked at Calleigh awkwardly before staring down at the unconscious young woman and lifting up part of the blanket to push the teddy down and in beside her. It was a giraffe teddy, the blonde realised.

"Why a giraffe?" Calleigh pondered aloud.

"There was some nature programme on," Speed muttered, "and Ridley said she liked them because they're the only mammals who don't need a lot of sleep, she said she could relate to that."

"She really doesn't sleep much," Calleigh agreed sorrowfully. Ordinarily she would have smiled at Speed's out of character kind gesture and his obvious awkwardness about it but concern overrode any amusement.

"Yeah, anyway," Speed looked up at Calleigh grimly, "let's get this over with, then I can go."

"You're sure you need to stay for it?" Calleigh quipped. "I mean it's already personal and painful enough."

"Calleigh," Speed protested wearily with a frown.

"Alright, alright." She headed towards her metal case and opened it up.

The woman seemed to tense and flinch a few times but she didn't awaken throughout the process. Once it was done Speed shook his head silently and hastened out of the room. Calleigh sighed, packaged everything up for the lab and then took a seat beside the woman and attempted to get comfortable.

He had been near the Miami-Dade Headquarters at approximately 11:30pm, sadly not near enough for the police cameras to pick him up but near enough for the road traffic cameras to catch some action. There was only one vehicle at that time of the evening turning towards the area where the bloody shirt and card had been abandoned that they could not positively identify the owner of, a black jeep about five years old.

A trace had revealed the jeep was a rental and a wide search had turned it up burnt out and still smoking at 04:00 in the otherwise empty car park of an old warehouse, had the police not been on the lookout for it they wouldn't have noticed.

Now here they were in the warehouse, just Speed and Horatio despite Horatio contemplating surrounding and securing the area. It looked clear, the killer had taken his time then, but a bloodstained, gold coin and a few mannequins gave it away as the primary crime scene.

Speed kept staring at a wooden table near where the coin was that looked entirely too clean. He snapped a few photos emotionlessly, frowning when he spied a few flecks of blood that evidently couldn't quite be scrubbed out. So it had happened right here then.

"He took his time clearing this area," Horatio murmured, "because he had no idea we found Ridley, which means he didn't think we would be coming here any time soon either. It was just over a couple of hours ago that the jeep was found, still burning, he can't be far."

"No," Speed answered in frustration, "but where?"

"I don't know but there were no tyre tracks outside, wherever he went he probably went on foot. Let's keep searching round here and I'll have someone survey the nearby area." He tugged out his mobile as he started pacing about the warehouse. The place had been cleaned slowly because he thought he had all the time in the world yet he was cocky enough to think no one would come here for a while and make the connection, so he had to have slipped up, there had to be something more than a single gold coin and some blood flecks.

"He's bound to be watching the news," Speed grumbled, "he'll know by now about Ridley, the press were all over it."

"Well hopefully he's panicking then and he will slip up," Horatio murmured as his phone rang out. He was greeted down the phone by a weary Frank Tripp. "Hi Frank, we're at an abandoned warehouse on Sandy Fern Street, site 988b, I need the area searched within a five mile radius. Our guy's not far, make sure people take care and are subtle about this, he's very intelligent and very dangerous, you know the drill." The redhead hung up the phone and turned to the trace expert who was looking at him with a sickly gaze.

"What if goes after Ridley again?" Speed demanded.

"I think it's more probable he will try for one of us," Horatio answered calmly as he met Speed's serious glare, "but if not, you left Ridley with Calleigh and two other cops, she's in good hands Speed."

"I know but...shit; I don't know whether to be with her or here. We need this guy, while whatever evidence is left is still fresh. Where's he going though? After her? After one of us? Another victim?" He shook his head angrily. "He must have a base."

"Yes, and it's going to be nearby," Horatio retorted confidently.

Speed lifted a bottle of blood detecting spray and began soaking the table, already knowing whose blood was going to be there. After the table was sufficiently drenched he sat down the spray, knelt down, flicked the switch for his illuminating light, stood up and began to slowly wave the bar of light over the scene. It was always better going ultraviolet in the dark but that would involve turning off the main lights and plunging them into the semi-darkness of the grey morning. Most natural light was kept out, sneaking in through the few clean patches in the small windows that lined the top of the walls. "Fuck." He lowered the light and froze up. Off-white patches, he knew what they had to be, and vibrant pink for blood. Lots and lots of blood.

Horatio peered over his shoulder at the mixture of vibrant pink and some faint off-white stains. He wondered briefly what all Ridley had suffered to lose so much blood and immediately put the thought from his head. "Swab it and bag it," he ordered.

"It," Speed repeated numbly as he scraped off some blood stains and put the samples in a bag before turning his attention to the other stain. "You mean the blood that gives us a good idea of all the pain she went through or the seamen that proves he raped her? What for? The blood's hers, the seamen's his and he isn't on the system."

"Speed this is a crime scene, we're processing it like any other."

"We're wasting time!" Speed snapped angrily even as he scraped up another sample. "None of this tells us where he's gone! He'll be running now, destroying the evidence piece by piece, maybe going for another victim, many planning on finishing Ridley off, or maybe just quitting the city, gone for good."

Horatio folded his arms and gave his co-worker a serious stare. "Speed I want the guy as badly as you do, but if we don't do this right we might ignore something and that could cost us everything. Let's do this properly and wait for Frank's call, he'll have everyone searching; someone will have seen our guy in the area. His big advantage was no one knew what he looked like and that's gone now because Ridley saw him and gave us a good description, and we both know he did not plan for that."

Speed shook his head angrily even as he sprayed around the table, hoping for footprints that he knew wouldn't be there.

Nightfall. Calleigh had taken a break at Eric's insistence but she had refused to leave the hospital. The half-Cuban had tried to get her to go home to sleep, assuring that he would watch Ridley but the blonde had refused so instead they had had watched her together for a few hours until Eric had been summoned by an excited Horatio to join him and Speed at what they thought was their killer's base.

Now it was almost ten o'clock in the evening and Calleigh was exhausted despite having nodded off for two hours in an uncomfortable position in the hospital chair which had left her with kinks. Naturally that had been when Eric was in the room, when the blonde had surprisingly felt safe enough to let down her guard a little. Now she was as alert as ever, anxiously wondering what the men had found and contemplating ringing them. Eric had been gone for almost two hours now; surely they had turned up something.

She tensed and her blue eyes flickered over to Ridley when the young woman let out a painful groan. Another followed more loudly, and then a frightened moan before her swollen eyelids fluttered open. "No!" she shrieked out the word in a panic prompting Calleigh to stand and put herself in the woman's vision.

"It's alright Ridley," the Southern assured, "you're in the hospital and you're safe."

"No," she choked it out, quieter this time, her hoarse voice quivering with the effort as her eyes rolled up to Calleigh. She was burning with pain, every muscle, every bone, every nerve seemed to ache, her head was singing with agony and she struggled to focus. "Am I dying?" she croaked out weakly. She felt restrained and was fearful of chains before she realised that her hands and feet were separate and their bonds were softer.

"No," Calleigh retorted with a warm smile, though it was hard to smile given Ridley's beaten state.

"If I do," she rasped, "no morgue..." She shook her head violently then. "No grave, not again, I thought...I don't want buried here! No, not down in the dark again!" Tears started to flow from her eyes as she started to tremble violently. "She talks to the dead, please not me, he promised..."

"Ridley calm down," Calleigh urged gently as she saw the heart monitor began to race as its beeping grew frantic.

"He said he'd sort it but I can't be buried here, not again!" Her eyes went wide and Calleigh filled with alarm as Ridley half-shot up and vomit sprayed down her chin before she seemed to collapse back onto her bed. "Where are they?" she demanded as she tried to turn in her bed. "Oh God why am I alive?" she queried tearfully. Her body was broken, even turning just a little filled her with suffering and had her wincing and crying out in pain.

"Ridley I know you've suffered a lot," Calleigh murmured, trying to keep back her own tears, "but we are all so glad you have survived, please don't wish you hadn't."

"No, you don't understand," she rasped as blood began to leak from her nose and spew from her mouth as she spoke. "Where's Tim? Where's Horatio? Where?" she demanded shrilly as her nose flared and the whites of her eyes showed.

"Spe...Tim," she corrected herself hastily, "and Horatio are chasing up the evidence, your evidence," the blonde added encouragingly. "You did so well Ridley," she praised, hoping to calm the woman, "they're going to get him."

"No! No!" she screamed out the words as her body began to shake without warning. "He'll kill him!" she wailed as the blood poured faster. "I live, Tim dies! I can't!"

Calleigh let out a cry of alarm when Ridley seemed to collapse, her eyes shutting and her frame going limp. She rushed to the door rapidly, flung it open and snapped to the cops on duty, "get a doctor here now!"

Horatio looked at the tape Speed had recovered still in its black recorder, hidden in a sealed safe behind a secret panel behind the bed in the spare bedroom. Two hours of hunting and they had finally found the safe, their best clue to the killer's plans. In it there was a tape recorder, a notepad and a scrap book.

They had found the apartment empty naturally but several neighbours had confirmed the resident was a man in his thirties with brown hair and blue-violet eyes, a feature everyone seemed to remember best. They had found DNA to send off to trace to be sure but books on urban legends, newspaper clippings from the cases in New York and Miami and the photographs in the scrap book confirmed it.

The photos were of the victims, in order, each with the victims' names, the number they were, and the manner of their deaths written beneath the photograph in fine, black calligraphy. They were photos taken from the crime scenes, some were family photos evidently pocketed from frames in living rooms whilst others were crudely cut out from driving licences or passports. The Kinskey siblings was a disturbing one, showing the two smiling siblings whilst Glenn, who stood in the centre, had his head missing. Justin Silver's photo was also disturbing, he had been beaming from ear to ear in it, handsome as ever with his eyes sparkling from drink and his arm about Ridley who had her eyes scratched out and 'BITCH' scribbled on her forehead in what looked like blood. Horatio's had recognised Ruby's photo as the old, creased one of the wall with her and Ridley, wearing the star necklace, this time Justin had an X across her face, Ruby was untouched and 'NEXT' was written across Ridley's brow in blood.

Tim turned over a page in the scrap book with his gloved hands and came to the final photo in the book. 'No.16- Det Ridley Moon- Buried Alive'. Tim tensed at the photograph, pressing a finger down on it slightly, he recognised it all too well, Ridley looking surprised with noodles dangling from her mouth and his black shirt loosely wrapped around her, he had taken it in his house and developed it on a whim. It had been sitting in his room in the drawer beside his bed in a case with a collection of other photographs as he had been unable to decide what to do with it and had hidden it in annoyance.

"Something wrong?" Horatio queried.

Speed glowered up at him, wondering how he could ask such a thing. He held back a sardonic response and answered wearily, "this came from my house."

Horatio followed his stare to the photograph and nodded. "He always takes a photograph of his victims," he murmured darkly.

"Should we get this back to the lab?" Eric queried dubiously as he eyed the tape recorder. He knew what was probably on there and that them listening to it now was easily the worst idea.

Speed ignored him, moved to the offensive object and dared to hit play. He did it suddenly without really thinking about it, he had to know what was on there and better hearing it now and getting the horror out of the way than waiting and wondering for hours while it was undergoing tests in the lab.

The screams erupted from it immediately causing Eric to flinch, Speed to frown and Horatio to fill with a deep guilt. They were female, high pitched and an indicator of suffering and pain rather than simple terror. They listened wordlessly as the tape played out, a man's voice making threats, then grunts, moans and more terrible screams. The screams turned animalistic, high pitched and wild as the pain evidently became too much, then there was begging and sobs. When Ridley's voice called out pleadingly for mercy all three of them filled with sympathy for the woman.

"Tell Lieutenant Caine it's his fault," the voice was deep and menacing and bore a hint of a New York accent to it, not the strong Queens brogue of Detective Flack but more like Ridley's odd mixture of city and village accent, a state accent corrupted by a pang of the metropolis.

"No," she answered defiantly, "it's my fault, mine."

"I'll make them scream, all of them and it will be your fault, the photographer first."

"Leave Tim alone." Her voice sounded weak then, almost delirious but still defiant.

Speed flinched at her words, even through her pain he could hear the desperation there and the seriousness. More bloodcurdling screams followed and then the tape clicked off.

"I..." She shook her head repeatedly. "What will he make me yell?"

"Ridley don't talk like that," Horatio retorted seriously as he looked at her firmly. "I won't let that happen."

It was Horatio who cursed as the recent memory of his promise to Ridley flickered through his mind. She had known the killer would get her and make her scream as he had done with Justin, and Horatio had been so confident that would never happen and now here they were, listening to those screams he had vowed would never exist.

The redhead tensed as his phone started ringing, tugged it out and flipped it open. "Hello Calleigh."

"Horatio you guys need to come to the hospital!" Calleigh cried out down the phone. "I don't know what's going on, she woke up and she started freaking out and now they're operating on her. Please come, I'm scared she's going to die."

Horatio paled slightly at Calleigh's words though he kept his face perfectly neutral. "Alright, we need to wrap things up here first."

"Did you find anything? Any leads?" the blonde queried desperately.

"The trail's gone cold," the redhead confessed wearily. "We found his base but it's unclear where he's gone. We can only hope the evidence will tell us more. We won't be long Calleigh."

"Okay, please don't be."

Horatio hung up the phone and met Eric and Speed's prying, worried stares. "Ridley's getting operated on," he informed them calmly, "she went into shock or took a seizure, I'm not sure."

Speed muttered a curse as he shook his head. "Her body can't take much more," he grumbled, "he's going to win, she'll be his victim."

It was just after three in the morning that Ridley's eyes fluttered open again. Horatio was unnerved by the fear he saw in them and wondered if the young woman would ever get over what she had been through. "Good morning Ridley," he greeted brightly as he crouched down so that he was eye level with her, "you've had us quite worried."

She looked at him at first in confusion then in desperation as she started trembling and shook her head. "If I live someone else dies," she choked out as tears burned through her eyes and down her cut cheeks. "Please, don't let them bring me back...I'm so sore and tired...and if I go...it ends."

"No it doesn't," Horatio said firmly, "he just told you that so you would surrender to him, if you die Ridley he will still keep killing and he will come after us, don't let him in your head." He paused at his words, realising the dark truth, he'd already gotten into her head and her body.

"He's been in me," she sobbed out, "God every inch..." She turned away from Horatio and started sobbing hoarsely.

The redhead felt sorrow, unable to steel himself to his emotions the way he normally could. Perhaps it was because all he could think of was the terrified teenager he had failed, locked up in the dark, hurt, suffering and alone and now here she was suffering all over again. He reached out a hand to her and stroked her hair tenderly. "I know I have no right to ask anything of you," he said softly, "but I'm going to anyway and it's a big thing."

"What?" she croaked miserably.

"I'm going to ask you to keep fighting for survival, to keep pushing yourself to live no matter how much it hurts or how exhausted you are because I'm selfish and so are Tim, Calleigh and Eric and we can't lose you because we care about you and we will be lost without you. I also don't want you to worry about us, you'll have enough to do getting yourself through this, we are going to get this guy, I promise you."

She squeezed her eyes shut, wincing at the pain as her swollen lids throbbed with the effort and her bloody cheeks burned as her salty tears irritated them. For a moment there was only the sound of her sniffling before the door opened and Speed entered.

He halted awkwardly by the door taking in the sight of Horatio crouched over Ridley, stroking her hair soothingly, and the sounds of her crying. He didn't know what to think except to feel some relief that she was awake. He hastened forward when Horatio glanced back at him and gave a small nod. Horatio withdrew his hand then and stood upright, smoothing down his grey jacket as he did. "I'm going to go now and see what Eric has come up with at the lab."

Ridley turned sharply, letting out a gasp of pain as she did. "You can't go," she snapped worriedly, "please, he'll come after all of you."

"Ridley," Horatio said sternly, "I told you not to worry about that. None of us will be on our own, I'm going to the lab, there's plenty of security there and I will have everyone closely watched. Now, get some rest, Speed's here to keep you company." He gave Speed a calm stare and murmured, "I'll call you in a few hours, ring if you need anything."

Speed nodded back bluntly and watched as Horatio exited out of the room before he turned his attention back to Ridley. "Hi," he said awkwardly. He was glad she was awake and yet he wasn't because the guilt was consuming him and he didn't know how to address it.

"I'm sorry," she said weakly, "I've put all of you in so much danger, I wasn't meant to live."

"I know," he retorted numbly, "but I'm glad you did, and I'm sorry, more than you can know."

"What for?" she croaked in confusion.

"My gun failed you," he confessed coldly, "it misfired because I didn't clean it and because of that...well what you suffered...shit Ridley I can't ever undo it, all I can do is keep pushing to get this guy and I will, I swear I'm not going to screw up with that."

"Please don't go after him Tim," she choked out pleadingly.

He looked at her in confusion, wondering if she no longer had faith in him as a cop.

"He told me he'd come after you," she rasped as she tried to sit up and failed, "he said if I hadn't...if he hadn't got me you would've been next." The tears began to fall again and her bloody lip trembled as she swallowed down a sob.

Tim's slightly sunken brown eyes widened a fraction. "I know, I heard the tape Ridley," he confessed.

She turned an odd shade of grey then and started shaking her head anxiously. "No, no, I should've died; he won't leave you alone now!"

Speed sighed, squeezed the skin between his eyes at his nose briefly and then reached down to the giraffe teddy, tugging it up and placing it close to the woman before he sat down awkwardly on the edge of her bed. "It's not going to happen," he said confidently, "he's not getting you again and he's not getting any of us. I have another gun, a clean one, if you can trust me to stay with you, and there are two cops outside. I know you wouldn't have missed that shot Ridley, I messed up and it cost you almost everything so don't talk about dying; if you die I can't live with that guilt."

"It's not your guilt," she murmured, "I couldn't keep my own gun secure Tim, and I went to your house knowing he was out looking for me, it was my own fault I just...I didn't want any of you hurt, he knew things about all of you...Detective Flack was right, I've endangered all of you."

Speed placed a hand down on her brow gently and found it fiery to the touch. "Flack is an ignorant asshole," he scorned, "he's not right about anything."

"It hurts," she confessed with a wince, "all over, so much, Horatio said I have to keep going but it's hard, everything burns and I keep dreaming about Justin and Ruby, I just want it to be over Tim."

He nodded before withdrawing his hand, leaning down and kissing her brow lightly. "It will be over Ridley, but you're going to be alive at the end of it. I know he put you through hell and I will never forgive myself for letting you walk out those doors alone to suffer that but I want a second chance Ridley so don't give up."

"A second chance? You're not the one who messed everything up; I did...Justin...Ruby...all those other people."

"I let you go off alone with a gun that didn't work, I messed up badly Ridley and I'm amazed you're still talking to me and I'm hoping it's not the drugs you're on."

She almost smiled at that but her mouth hurt too much and she gave up on the gesture. "You couldn't have known and I made the choice to go...God it was dark..." She started to quiver. "Every time I thought it was going to end it got worse...back in the dark...trapped again...I thought I'd die there...and everything before...God he's a monster, the worst kind of monster..."

"I know," Speed retorted quietly as he leaned back against the bed, sliding down slightly, and then tugged Ridley up and over to him as carefully as he could, taking care not to knock out any of her wires or pipes. He positioned her similar to the way they had been in Ruby's, with the side of her head pressed against his chest, and his arms wrapped securely over her. He took care to place the giraffe just beneath her neck snuggled against her chest and then tugged his red shirt up and around her. "Close your eyes," he murmured, "and let me try to get taking care of you right."

Bump, bump, bump, there it was again, the soothing beats of Tim's heart. Ridley pressed into his chest as it started to lull her shudders and calm her nerves. Bump, bump, a steady, calm beat, an indication that things were okay, if it quickened then she would worry.